I will never leave you.

It's been thirty hours since the terrorist attack on Ruzhichka. Jensen had just waking up, stretching his stiff muscles. He wanted to smoke, but he couldn't. Out of cigarettes. "Alex, are you okay?" Adam turned on the infolink. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. How are you?" "I'm okay, I guess. I've been thinking about what happened, but I'm fine." "Call me when you're ready. We need to talk." "Okay. Alex is off the grid." Aug got out of bed, went to the window and said: "Open the curtains." To which a robotic voice responded: "Good morning, Adam Jensen. You have one new message." "Play it." Adam heard a familiar voice. Sarif. "Adam, I heard about the explosion. I hope you're okay. I'm leaving for London soon, but still... call me." "Do you still have the number?" "Yeah. All you have to do is turn on the TV." Jensen took a quick morning shower, changed and walked over to the TV, hesitant to call David. "Why is it so hard for me to just pick up and call? It's David Sharif, not Pritchard or Megan" - thinking about Pritchard immediately made him feel kind of sad at heart. Adam never thought he would miss his friend so much, more than he missed Megan. Though he'd long since forgotten Megan, because she'd certainly forgotten him, he couldn't forget Frank. His teasing, his smug smirk... Jensen almost forgot why he'd come in the first place. He dialed Sarif. "Adam, good to see you!" his voice sounded cheerful, but that cheerfulness was immediately replaced by concern. "Are you okay?" "I'm fine. Are you okay?" "More or less. In Panchaea, I was trapped under the rubble. The rescue team pulled me out, but while they were stitching me up, the company went bankrupt and was bought out by Tai Yun Medical. They were the only ones who could afford it. I need your signature to finalize the bankruptcy papers." "Wait...you need my signature?" Adam was confused. "You were officially presumed dead for a year...and your apartment in Detroit...it was registered in your name, but we were paying for it." "All right. Send the proper paperwork. I'll sign it." "Thanks, Adam." Sarif smiled. "Any questions? It's been two years since we've been in touch." "Yeah. I have a couple questions." The aug said sadly. "Go ahead." "Do you know how Megan's doing?" "She works at Versalife now. I haven't talked to her in a while. I'll tell you this. I'll tell you what, son, cut her out of your life. She's definitely thrown us out of hers." "Do you and Pritchard talk at all?" "Frank went freelance after the company went under, stayed in Detroit." "Is he still at the old Rialto movie theater?" "Yeah. Actually, I thought after what happened, he'd change places, but he seems to like it. David thought for a second. Listen, I have a question about where you were before you showed up." "At first I didn't realize where I was. Then it got a little clearer. I ended up in Alaska, in some clinic, after they pulled me out of the ocean... A year later I met Pritchard, then I came to Prague, knowing that this place is a "paradise" for augs. And then... You know what happened next." "Yeah... Do you remember any of the doctors?" "I think..." Jensen thought about it. "Seems, one of them is called Vadim Orlov. The key word is "seems."" No way," Sarif said quietly. "I think I can find him for you. I'll call wherever I need to and you can ask him about everything. I may not have company anymore, but in some circles my name still means something." "Thank you." "I have to leave for London soon, but I'll try to find him for you. Take care of yourself, Adam." "You take care of yourself, too, David." "I'll see you later." David disconnected. Jensen sighed heavily. "I wonder if Pritchard's gonna see me again?" the aug thought. "Who am I am I kidding? Of course he won't want to see me. I came into his life abruptly, after I'd been dead for a year, and just as abruptly disappeared from it. Even I wouldn't want to see myself after that." - Adam was brought out of his musings by Miller's voice. "Jensen, why don't you answer right away when you're spoken to?" Miller was clearly angry. "Sorry, Miller, I was thinking. Is everything okay?" "Yeah. I just wanted to see how you were after the explosion." "I'm fine, sir." "Okay. I need you at TF29. I have an assignment for you." "You got it. I need to go see Collier first." "Uh-huh. Come by when you get off the phone." Jim's off the phone. Aug quickly packed up, left the apartment and went to Collier's, giving him a heads-up, of course.              ***        It wasn't that hard to install the chip-knocker, but right after that Miller called Adam into his office. "Adam, I hope I don't have a problem with you." "If you're talking about whether or not I'm crazy, the answer is no." "Great. I need you to go to Ruzhichka and check it out." "Didn't you send Smiley down there?" "I did, but he stopped contacting me. I'm worried something bad's gonna happen. Even now." Miller's stern voice hasn't wavered. "All right. I'll check it out. I'll check it out." Jensen was about to leave when he remembered he wanted to leave today. "Oh, yeah. Director, I have to fly to Detroit today for... family reasons." "Since when did I start calling Frank family?" popped into Adam's head. "I hope you don't mind." "No. How long are you going away for?" "I think I'll be back tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow. I don't know yet, but I won't stay long, so I'll be back before I fly to London." "That's good. Just don't take too long." Miller sat down at his computer. "Now go." Aug's off on a mission.              ***        It wasn't the best idea to break into Miller's apartment, but it was the only way to find out if he was Illuminati or not. The first thing Adam saw when he got into the apartment was a laptop on the kitchen counter. It wasn't hard to hack into, but all that was there was a saved correspondence with some man named Neil. Nothing suspicious. Walking a little farther over to the desk, the aug noticed divorce and surgery papers for, Jensen realized, a daughter... Adam began to doubt that he wanted to pursue the matter further. The full confidence vanished when he saw Miller's family photos. "He's so happy... What if the Illuminati threaten him with his family and he has to follow orders without question? He loves his family and doesn't want to lose them... He knows what family is... That's probably why he let me go to Detroit so easily." "Adam," came Alex's voice, "I see activity at the door. Looks like Miller's back. Did you find anything suspicious?" "No. Nothing suspicious. I was just leaving." Just as Aug was about to go downstairs, the door opened and Miller and a man walked in. I had to put on my disguise. "What do you want?" Jim's voice came through the door. "I've done everything you asked." "No, you haven't. Don't forget our other deal." "We only had one deal: I send a team to Dubai, we neutralize the Jinns, we keep you from doing your job, and you get behind me and my family." Jensen slowly walks down the stairs, trying not to draw attention to himself. Standing across from Miller was a tall man with a prosthetic arm. Prosthetic arm, missing one eye... a familiar face... "IDIOT!" shouted the unknown man, hitting Miller in the face. Although the blow was not strong, Jim fell with such a thud, as if he was thrown into the wall with all his might. "You think I won't notice the fact that the helicopter battery was taken out by one of your subordinates, because you gave the order...." "What else was I supposed to do, huh?! If I hadn't given that order, my men would have gotten suspicious. Do you want to get burned?! It's not my fault Jensen's so good." "Speaking of Jensen. You're gonna give him to us for the Orchid trials. Only then will we get behind you and your family." Jim and Adam were shocked. "No way... I will never sacrifice my subordinates..." the blow came again. This time harder, causing Miller to let out a pained groan. "But you're willing to sacrifice your family?" The man threw a photo of his family in front of him. "Choose: either some obscure aug you barely know or your family." There was a moment's silence that seemed to last forever. "All right. I'll do what you want. You get Jensen." "Good boy." The stranger got down on one knee and took Jim's chin. "You're so pathetic, so naive, so weak. You're so easy to manipulate." The man chuckled. "It's sickening to watch. I wish you were Adam Jensen. Maybe you'd be a little smarter." Miller looked at him with his usual gaze, though he could see the tears, the fear. "You're right. He's not Adam Jensen. But I'm Adam Jensen, and I'm not going to be sold for experiments." Aug held a gun to the stranger's head. "Adam, what are you doing here?" Miller's voice shook. "Later." Jensen muttered. "We'll deal with you for now. Threatening Miller, threatening everyone. Don't think you're gonna get away with it. Over my dead body." "You've got a lot of confidence." The man chuckled. "Okay, I'm outta here." The stranger left quickly, saying one last thing: "You're lucky he was around, but next time you'll be in trouble." Miller sighed heavily, picked up the photograph, got up off the floor, sat down in a chair and covered his face with his hands. "Explain to me, Adam, what are you doing in my apartment?" Jim didn't look military now. "Picked up some suspicious activity, decided to see if everything was all right...." "Don't lie. Laptop's been hacked and saved correspondence with Neil has been opened." "Oh, crap." "At least when you break into houses, clean up after yourself." "Uh, excuse me." "What were you trying to find here?" "Uh, nothing." "Jensen, I am so sick and tired of this. Why don't you just tell the truth?" "Well, first I was looking for anything suspicious. Something to find out if you were Illuminati or not, but then I gave up when I saw your family photos." Adam sat in the chair next to Miller. "Can I ask you a question?" "Well?" "Are you mad at me?" "Of course I am. You broke into my apartment. Tried to find something here. But thanks for being there for me. If it wasn't for you, I could have ended up with rape. It's happened before." "It has?" "Yeah. If he hadn't threatened my family, I never would have agreed to it." "Who's Neil?" "Neil. He's my husband, apparently my ex-husband." "What are you two getting divorced about?" "Do you really need to know? Because I'm not saying anything." "I see. All right." Aug got up from the table. "If everything ended well... I'll go, I have to leave soon. Can you tell me what time it is?" Jim didn't say anything, just pointed to his watch. 16:30 "Shit. I got a flight to catch. I'm late." "I'll call Chicane. His house isn't far. He'll meet you there." Miller said without looking up. "Good luck, Agent Jensen." Adam nodded and walked out of the apartment, heading toward Chicane's house. "Adam, Miller called me, he didn't sound very good, said you needed to go to Detroit." "Yeah." "I'll meet you at my place." "I know."              ***        The flight went okay. There was a little turbulence, but mostly smooth. Chikane dropped Jensen off on the roof of the movie theater. It was easier to get down from there. Pritchard sat at his computer, bent over, drinking his tenth or twentieth mug of coffee. "You haven't changed a bit." Aug said, leaning against the doorjamb. "Jensen, what are you doing here?" Frank got up from the table and walked over to his friend. "I thought I'd check up on you, see if you were..." Before Adam could finish, he was slapped in the face. "Get back where you came from." The hacker walked back to the table. "Frank." "Don't, Jensen. Don't even try. I don't want to hear you, much less see you." Pritchard was getting angrier and angrier. So please, just leave. Don't make me take extreme measures. "No, Pritchard. I didn't fly nine hours for you to just turn me down. I'm not going anywhere without you." "GET OUT! Don't you fucking understand English?!" the hacker lost his nerve "After everything that's happened, I'm not even sure I want to know about you! For a year I thought you were dead, Jensen. A whole year. And then, a whole year later, you break into a movie theater like it's nothing, ask for help, and then you disappear and then you're gone for a year. How hard is it to text or what?!" "Frank, are you crying?" it's true.. Frank had tears in his eyes. "How can you not cry when the person you love so much disappears and you don't know where he is, you don't know if he's alive! That's what you bitch did to me. You kissed me, you promised you'd never leave me, and then you just walked away, and left me alone. You walked away and didn't say a fucking word!" The hacker walked up to Adam again and gave him another slap. "Just walk away...." Pritchard didn't realize anything when he was kissed. He didn't give in at first, but after a few seconds he responded. Adam's hands slid under his sweater, stroking Frank's body. "I'm not leaving you this time." Jensen said, breaking the kiss. "Will you stay here?" The hacker whispered. "No. I'll take you back to Prague with me." The aug pulled his friend back into the kiss. Without breaking the kiss, miraculously without crashing into anything, they reached the bed, or rather it was something like a bed, and fell on it, breaking the kiss to breathe and look at each other before kissing again.